Before Eminem Gets to Lead #TheResistance, He Has Some Explaining to Do

Every year during the BET Awards, the world gets treated to a new crop of cyphers—slickly-produced, pre-taped black-and-white clips that feature rappers trading "freestyle" verses as a few of their peers bob their heads respectfully in the background, apparently in an effort to convince viewers that they are watching an authentic hip-hop event and not a very expensive awards show. They used to be legitimate run-to-the-TV-and-start-the-VCR material—man, this Busta Rhymes versestill makes me want to quit my job and become a battle rapper—but in recent years, the star power has taken the night off, leaving the task to a weird mix of up-and-comers and the likes of Kevin Hart.

This time around, though, Eminem apparently decided that he had some Donald Trump-related things to get off his chest, and that an a cappella cypher would be the perfect forum in which to do so.

For four and a half minutes, in a parking garage ostensibly located somewhere in Detroit, Eminem unloaded on the President of the United States. There were rhymes about nuclear holocausts. There were punchlines about Bannon, and Klansmen, and Charlottesville, and the president's skin color. ("Orange," which Eminem rhymed with "for," which, sure. Close enough.) And there was a lengthy exposition on the ongoing NFL pregame protests and the plight of the still-unemployed Colin Kaepernick.

Instead of talking Puerto Rico or gun reform for NevadaAll these horrible tragedies and he’s bored and would rather cause a Twitterstorm with the Packers

...

Now, if you’re a black athlete, you’re a spoiled little brat for
Trying to use your platform or your stature to try to give those a voice who don’t have one

His verse reached its crescendo after he contemptuously dismissed the vapid morons who insist on equating peaceful protests against police brutality with disrespecting the flag. "Fuck that. This is for Colin. Ball up a fist.” He proceeded to throw down a gauntlet to any of his fans who might be under the profoundly mistaken impression that Eminem is cool with Donald Trump.

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Any fan of mine who’s a supporter of his
I’m drawing in the sand a line: You either for or against
And if you can’t decide who you like more and you’re split
On who you should stand beside I’ll do it for you with this:
Fuck you.

Fist back in the air, he continued:

The rest of America stand up.
We love our military, and we love our country.
BUT WE FUCKING HATE TRUMP.

Although I have to wonder how many people Eminem really alienated by disavowing MAGA enthusiasts—especially when compared to how many new admirers he probably knew he'd earn after this clip inevitably went viral—it does matter when influential people, and especially influential white people, call out the president's inveterate racism for what it is. And although I have absolutely no way of empirically proving this, it seems likely that of all the hip-hop fan bases in the world, Eminem's has the most overlap with "people who voted for Donald Trump." Artists have influence over people who listen to their music, and if a guest spot at the BET Awards nearly a year after Election Day is what finally causes those people to see the light—well, better late than never, I guess.

Still, it is disingenuous to heap praise on Woke Eminem without remembering that the man has built an entire career out of trafficking gleefully in, among other things, homophobia and misogyny, neither of which he's ever quite been able to renounce even as casual expressions thereof have become, on the whole, less socially acceptable. For God's sake, one of his best-known songs is a fantasy about chasing down his ex-wife and murdering her in the woods, and none of his words are excused by the fact that he rhymes them cleverly with one another and then delivers them over pretty-sick Dr. Dre beats. (He also has his own checkered history, which he has also never adequately addressed, when it comes to accusations of casual racism.)

People can change, of course, and the brand of pedantic whataboutism that makes ideological purity a non-negotiable prerequisite for anyone who would condemn bad things is cynical and foolish and counterproductive. If an older, more self-aware Marshall Mathers cares about what's happening in the world and wishes to use his platform for good, that is better than him... not caring about what's happening in the world, and using his platform to extoll the virtues of, say, gerbil-related foreplay. But the man has some explaining to do before we breathlessly crown him the new standard-bearer for #TheResistance, and as long as he remains silent on those other subjects that also matter, it's okay to take his righteous, fiery condemnations of Donald Trump with a grain of salt.

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